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shadowkatWell, after spending Sunday walking around the Park with cjl (a particularly overcast, cool Sunday), I'm indoors on lovely, cloudless sky Labour Day. Why? Methinks I've caught a cold/flu bug.
Let's see: itchy throat, watery eyes, stuffy head, achy body, fatigue - ugh! No! No! Can't afford a cold now. Ugh. Can you beat this luck? Just as I am finishing temp jop and am about to start new job, plus dealing with Mother coming on this Sunday, I catch a cold! So, question, can I get past the cold/flu bugabu before mother arrives and I start new job? Am certainly going to try. Hence the staying home today, resting, drinking lots of fluids, doing the chicken noodle soup, and feeling very happy that I decided to take Thursday and Friday off. (Considering the next vacation day I get is Thanksgiving, this was a good idea.)
Sort of ironic really - joining a healthcare company with a cold. Hee. Except...mother cannot afford to get my cold since she is coming to see baby Cedar. Ugh. Go away. Cold. Go Away.
In other news - have read and watched numerous different accounts of the RNC, and have come to the conclusion that John Kerry has a 50/50 chance of defeating President Bush. Which means this is going to be a nail-biting election for some of us.
Finished The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and promptly loaned my copy to cjl. Figured he'd enjoy it. It's one of the few Dick he hasn't read. Fascinating book. Now reading the latest Harry Dresden novel, Blood Rites, before I consider tackling my book club's selection of Like Water for Chocolat. In between read an interesting book review of Susannah Clark's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, by Gregory Macguire (yes the same guy who wrote Wicked.)
I've been reading a lot about Clark's book, which appears to be a very intricate commentary on fantasy, magic and fantasy writers. Complete with satrical footnotes. It's very long - 800 pages. And apparently Neil Gaiman's latest discovery. Having read a few outtakes in MacGuire's review (which you can find in this weeks New York Times Book Review),
it looks wryly witty. Not sure I won't to spend the money and time on it though. Also, the blending of real historical events with the fantastical gets on my nerves in novels. (She blends in the Napoleanic Wars and meetings with Bryon and the Shelley's). On the other hand - it's wonderful to see yet another female writer enter what has steadily become an overwhelmingly male dominated field. Yes, there are other female writers in it, they just don't seem to get as much acclaim and attention as the CS Lewises, Philip Pullmen's, JR Tolkien's, Neil Gaiman's, and Terry Brooks. But that may just be my impression. I admit I've never delved deeply into the fantasy genre or the sci-fi genre, too eclectic, I tend to sample from all writing genre's never focusing too much on just one - generalist in everything. Has it's drawbacks I know.
At any rate, if anyone on line has actually bought or read this new tome - would love to hear your take on it.
Also saw the film Hero recently. Beautiful movie. Also oddly released to the US three years after it was first released in China and Hong Kong. Quite popular there and according to The Village Voice and The Onion, achieved acclaim that Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon did not.
Not much going on Hero. There was actually a lot more story in Crouching Tiger and Crouching Tiger is the better film. Hero is fairly simplistic in places and overtly patriotic. That said, it has beautiful visuals, that moved me to tears more than once. I'm a sucker for a good visual. Also possibly one of the most beautiful films I've seen cinematography wise. The director/cinematographer uses different color palettes to paint/ metaphorically depict each scene, reminding me a bit of looking at Chinese calligraphy or paintings of fantasy ballets. Recommend for the visuals and the ballet style fight scenes, particularly one that takes place amongst dancing leaves. But if you are hunting something deeper or more substantive plotwise? You'll probably be disappointed.
Let's see: itchy throat, watery eyes, stuffy head, achy body, fatigue - ugh! No! No! Can't afford a cold now. Ugh. Can you beat this luck? Just as I am finishing temp jop and am about to start new job, plus dealing with Mother coming on this Sunday, I catch a cold! So, question, can I get past the cold/flu bugabu before mother arrives and I start new job? Am certainly going to try. Hence the staying home today, resting, drinking lots of fluids, doing the chicken noodle soup, and feeling very happy that I decided to take Thursday and Friday off. (Considering the next vacation day I get is Thanksgiving, this was a good idea.)
Sort of ironic really - joining a healthcare company with a cold. Hee. Except...mother cannot afford to get my cold since she is coming to see baby Cedar. Ugh. Go away. Cold. Go Away.
In other news - have read and watched numerous different accounts of the RNC, and have come to the conclusion that John Kerry has a 50/50 chance of defeating President Bush. Which means this is going to be a nail-biting election for some of us.
Finished The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and promptly loaned my copy to cjl. Figured he'd enjoy it. It's one of the few Dick he hasn't read. Fascinating book. Now reading the latest Harry Dresden novel, Blood Rites, before I consider tackling my book club's selection of Like Water for Chocolat. In between read an interesting book review of Susannah Clark's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, by Gregory Macguire (yes the same guy who wrote Wicked.)
I've been reading a lot about Clark's book, which appears to be a very intricate commentary on fantasy, magic and fantasy writers. Complete with satrical footnotes. It's very long - 800 pages. And apparently Neil Gaiman's latest discovery. Having read a few outtakes in MacGuire's review (which you can find in this weeks New York Times Book Review),
it looks wryly witty. Not sure I won't to spend the money and time on it though. Also, the blending of real historical events with the fantastical gets on my nerves in novels. (She blends in the Napoleanic Wars and meetings with Bryon and the Shelley's). On the other hand - it's wonderful to see yet another female writer enter what has steadily become an overwhelmingly male dominated field. Yes, there are other female writers in it, they just don't seem to get as much acclaim and attention as the CS Lewises, Philip Pullmen's, JR Tolkien's, Neil Gaiman's, and Terry Brooks. But that may just be my impression. I admit I've never delved deeply into the fantasy genre or the sci-fi genre, too eclectic, I tend to sample from all writing genre's never focusing too much on just one - generalist in everything. Has it's drawbacks I know.
At any rate, if anyone on line has actually bought or read this new tome - would love to hear your take on it.
Also saw the film Hero recently. Beautiful movie. Also oddly released to the US three years after it was first released in China and Hong Kong. Quite popular there and according to The Village Voice and The Onion, achieved acclaim that Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon did not.
Not much going on Hero. There was actually a lot more story in Crouching Tiger and Crouching Tiger is the better film. Hero is fairly simplistic in places and overtly patriotic. That said, it has beautiful visuals, that moved me to tears more than once. I'm a sucker for a good visual. Also possibly one of the most beautiful films I've seen cinematography wise. The director/cinematographer uses different color palettes to paint/ metaphorically depict each scene, reminding me a bit of looking at Chinese calligraphy or paintings of fantasy ballets. Recommend for the visuals and the ballet style fight scenes, particularly one that takes place amongst dancing leaves. But if you are hunting something deeper or more substantive plotwise? You'll probably be disappointed.
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sorry you're not feeling well
Date: 2004-09-08 11:38 pm (UTC)I have all too much reason to empathize: I caught a cold the 2nd day after I got back from Worldcon. My fault for not making up the sleep I lost over the weekend, not to mention losing it in the 1st place.
On the subject of women SF/fantasy authors, 1st, I could name several others (if I were more awake), & 2nd, I wouldn't agree that "few are respected within the canon." But maybe that's a result of my view from within the fannish community & your statement is more true outside it.
Re: sorry you're not feeling well
Date: 2004-09-10 03:31 pm (UTC)On the subject of women SF/fantasy authors, 1st, I could name several others (if I were more awake), & 2nd, I wouldn't agree that "few are respected within the canon." But maybe that's a result of my view from within the fannish community & your statement is more true outside it.
Yes, it is. Outside fandom, or the sci-fantasy obsessed, these authors are relatively unknown. Don't believe me? Go into local book store and try to find them. Not a fantasy store or comic store.
(Although they can be hard to find there as well. Tend to find more male-specific authors in comic stores.)
Also ask an academic - there was a list recently generated by an academic in live journal and I think only one woman sci-fi author made it: Urusla Le Quinn. (He didn't mention Doris Lessing who wrote Canopus in Argos: Archives nor Octvaia Butler, or for that matter Connie Willis.) Now things may have changed since I was in college, but back in 1989,
no female fantasy or sci-fi writers were on the lists of the course that taught sci-fi/fantasy curriculums. And when you mentioned female writers?
People laughed at you. This is outside the fanbase.
Again check your local bookstore - not Barnes & Noble or the huge ones, a smaller one and see how many fantasy novels they carry and which ones. Although even Barnes and Noble is limited. You have to hunt for Lois MacMaster Bujold and Tamora Pierce and the writer of Perdition Station. But Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, Orson Scott Card, William Gibson, Tolkien and Terry Brooks have almost three shelves dedicated to them. The only female writers with as many shelves are Ann McCaffrey and possibly
Laurel K. Hamilton.